An additional perk that separates colleges from other brands is that the consumers actually welcome the opportunity to donate a fortune to them. Instead of finding this clinically insane, people applaud the generous act of so-called public service. Here is an example:
On Monday afternoon, the W. P. Carey Foundation plans to announce that it will give $30 million to the University of Maryland School of Law, which is in Baltimore. It will be renamed the Francis King Carey School of Law, after [William Polk] Carey’s grandfather, an 1880 graduate.Holy mother of goodness. The university of Maryland law school has about 800 students. Non-resident tuition at Maryland is about $17.5k this year. So ignoring fees and part-time students, their minimum tuition intake this year is about $14 million.
Do you think the Maryland administration is smiling right now?
With that amount of cash pouring in, the university could slash tuition for the next few years. And although that wouldn't be happening in any event, it looks like the money will go mostly towards aiding a joint MBA/JD program, because if you combine two saturated public school degrees together, they might make something marketable.
So what could prompt this crazy uncle moneybags to give away a fortune to a law school despite the absurd amount of genuinely-needy and socially-beneficial alternatives?
“It’s time to think about the future of Baltimore, a great city with a great history,” said Mr. Carey, the 80-year-old founder of W.P. Carey & Company, a corporate real estate financing firm. “The law school is now in the first tier. I’m looking forward to a joint J.D.-M.B.A. program, where it will be one big great happy family, giving people the best education imaginable, in Baltimore.”He envisions a program linking the Carey School of Law with the Johns Hopkins Carey School of Business — named for Mr. Carey’s great-great-great-grandfather after a $50 million gift from the Carey Foundation in 2006.
Is there anything sadder than the name-whores who dump cash into institutions that - all things considered - don't need it just to slap their name on something "prestigious?" If he really believes in education, couldn't he have given his money to the struggling and downtrodden Baltimore public school system, which would infinitely aid the local economy more? And what's this about Maryland being "now in the first tier?" That's really an effective marketing pitch? Really?
Sometimes I think the rich in this country are as ignorant and socially-blind as the French blue-blooded nobles in the 18th century, although I don't see anyone building a guillotine any time soon. All it takes is a phone call and Mr. Carey could have found a thousand different places where his money would have made a real, ground-floor difference in the Baltimore community. Legal aids, for example, could all use the funding to help protect the poor from injustice. Disease research at Hopkins would bring more educated people into the Baltimore community. For $30 million, he could have set up programs and - gasp - actual businesses that could help the mass of urban poor who have few alternatives. Instead, he puts his millions into the economic sink-hole of a law school. Even an ounce of basic, hubris-free, informed humanity would have compelled him to put his money elsewhere. Instead, he gets lauded in the New York Times for his massive waste of resources.
I appreciate his generous spirit. Not all of the wealthy in this country have a philanthropic mindset, but just about the last thing our economy or our people need is massive gifts for law schools.
My favorite part is his process for determining who is worthy, i.e. Arizona
ReplyDelete----
"Baltimore institutions are not the only ones to bear the Carey name. There is also the W. P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University, so named after a $50 million gift from the Carey Foundation in 2002.
Mr. Carey’s relationship with Arizona State stems from the university’s decision decades ago to name a building after his grandfather John Armstrong.
“They didn’t ask the family for a dime, and I thought that was nice,” Mr. Carey said.
Later, the university also gave Mr. Carey an honorary degree.
“That was nice, too,” he said. “I accepted it, and we got acquainted.”
Then, impressed by the university, he made his gift to the business school."
---
That's like getting blown by a hooker and deciding he/she did such a good job that you tipped them with the same amount as their actual hourly rate.
You also get to see the value that he ascribed to education in his personal life.
----
Mr. Carey attended Princeton University (“I cut too many classes, too many chapels, and I resigned before someone could ask me to leave”) and the University of Pennsylvania (“My brother got me in”). He professed fondness for both institutions (“I do care about Princeton, and plan to do something for it as soon as I get around to it”).
---
Translation, buying a legacy. The Rhodes Scholarship was founded by Cecil Rhodes who had no use for school and didn't even finish a degree at Oxford.
The other festering Maryland commode of law is doing well, too.
ReplyDeletehttp://law.ubalt.edu/template.cfm?page=1146
"The building project has a total budget of $107 million, of which $92 million will be contributed by the State of Maryland. The School of Law was responsible for raising the remaining $15 million in private funds and met that goal in March, 2010, thanks in large part to a generous $10 million donation from Peter Angelos, LL.B. ’61."
http://www.thefacultylounge.org/2010/12/former-maryland-law-dean-returns-300000-bonus.html
Who can forget when Karen Rothenberg, dean at the University of Maryland School of Law, made off with a HUGE-ASS bonus?!
"So reckless, apparently, that the payment was improper. Today the Maryland AG announced that Rothenberg - who previously returned the $60,000 summer stipend - is now returning $300K more, plus interest. If my math is right, she's getting to keep $50,000."